The Smart China Expo in Southwestern China’s Chongqing city, one of the nation’s largest affairs in smart technologies, is taking place for a second year. While smart technologies continue to make people’s lives easier, they also create new growth points for economies and regional cooperation. As Chongqing becomes an increasingly important link along the Belt and Road, how these technologies can boost regional cooperation is one of the most discussed topics.

“We're here to discuss the implementation of President Xi Jinping’s guide to seizing opportunities from smart internet technologies, and develop a digitized Silk Road,” said Huang Yong, the director-general for the International Cooperation Center of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), during a side bar conference on digitizing the Silk Road. 

According to the director-general, digital economy is one of the most dynamic and creative parts of China’s continuous efforts to open up. Latest data from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that the country’s digital economy is now the world’s second largest and amounted to a total of over 31 trillion yuan (about 4.3 trillion U.S. dollars) last year — almost one third of its total GDP.

Dr. Omer Fatih Sayan, the deputy minister of the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, told CGTN that the faster speed offered by the newer generations of Internet technology can help boost regional connectivity.

“The Silk Road in the ancient time started with camels - people coming through this vein. So now, we are on the edge of building not only by means of transportation but also by means of digital Silk Road with fiber, 5G and beyond,” said Sayan.

Bigger boosts to the economy come down to how smart technology improves people’s lives. Both international and domestic companies are showcasing their latest products to make people’s life more technologically driven. In the Smart China Expo, Changan Automobile, one of the four largest Chinese car brands, allows people try out their Level Four autonomous driving as well as remote controlling car via 5G connections. Many of these core technologies are in fact becoming home grown. The firm announced a deeper cooperation with Chinese tech giant Tencent during the Smart China Expo to roll out an application of China’s largest messaging and social media app with a billion active users, Tencent’s WeChat, for smart cars,

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China broke into the World’s top 20 most-innovative economies on the organization’s Global Innovation Index 2018, and was ranked 17th — jumped 5 places from 2017.

Kiran Patel, the senior director for China-Britain Business Council told CGTN that China would likely continue to climb up the global innovation index and the country has been building an eco-system for smart city development, new energy cars and green finance.

Facial recognition, 3D printing and blockchain, which are aimed at simplifying life, are also easy to spot in the Smart China Expo.

“In terms of innovation, earlier, we may say “Made in China” but now we say “Create in China.” We do see this big progress in China. We can already feel it in our daily life,” said Zhang Li, the vice president for investment firm IDG’s China branch.

Zhang added that as the world is getting smarter, standardized international guidelines need to be updated or created and China has also been contributing to making these guidelines.

New technological breakthroughs are also sparking new growth points. For example, in Chongqing — a city famous for its manufacturing, as the city has started to emphasize more on smart manufacturing since the first Smart China Expo held last year, it saw an uptick in its slowing secondary industry. The city’s secondary industry grew over six-percent in the first half this year — doubling the three-percent-growth rate seen in 2018.

The Chinese Vice Premier Liu He mentioned during the opening ceremony that as the Chinese economy continues to transform from high speed growth to high quality development, the nation’s economic fundamentals are still sound and robust.